Province invests in broadband and cellular coverage

By Cecilia Nasmith

What has been identified as as an area of top priority for the Eastern Ontario Regional Network has received a $71-million boost from the province – improved broadband and cellular capacity.

Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini made the announcement last week in Roseneath, pointing out that about 10% of rural Eastern Ontario has no mobile broadband connection, leading to dropped calls, reduced access to emergency services and a lack of opportunity.

“It is essential that proper infrastructure is in place to support public safety across the province, including in rural areas around Northumberland where cellular coverage is lacking,” Piccini said in the press release.

“Our government is taking action to improve connectivity, so that people can feel confident and safe, at home and on the road.”

The provincial grant will be part of a public-private initiative that will also include Federal and municipal governments as well as private-sector partners in a $213-million project that will virtually eliminate coverage gaps in the region.

“The EORN project will add new infrastructure and increase network capacity that will provinde 95% coverage of the Eastern Ontario Region service levels,” the press release said.

“The goal of the project is to bring cell coverage to 99% of the region where people live, work and travel,” it continued, adding that this does not include unpopulated areas such as forests, swamps and protected lands.

The EORN consists of 10 municipalities, including Northumberland County. The Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus has already completed a major project to build a high-capacity fibre-optic backbone network in Eastern Ontario.

Prom night in Cobourg means transit adjustments

By Cecilia Nasmith

Prom night at Cobourg high schools is a night of magic that is kicked off by a tradition around grand arrivals that adds to the experience for young participants – and to the transportation headaches of anyone who has to travel in that vicinity at the same time.

That time and place would be Friday, May 24, when arrivals at the Cobourg Collegiate Institute (335 King St. E.) are expected to take place between 5 and 7 p.m.

As a result, the Town of Cobourg is adjusting Route 1 of its transit system during that two-hour period.

Three stops will be eliminated during that time – D'Arcy Street at King Street East (south side), D'Arcy Street at King Street East (north side) and King Street East at Abbott Boulevard.

There will also be a detour from the regular route – the bus will leave the terminal and head east on King Street East to Walton, Chapel and D'Arcy Streets, and then to Cottesmore Avenue before continuing on to King Street East.

If you have any questions or concerns, contact the engineering department at 905-372-4555.

Logel reports warm welcome for MP at EORN

By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County Warden John Logel updated fellow county councillors at the May meeting on news from the Eastern Ontario Wardens' Caucus and the Eastern Ontario Regional Network.

Their latest meeting April 18 in County Frontenac was their annual gathering with member ridings' MPs, Logel said.

It was the occasion for advocacy efforts on behalf of the group's priority projects – affordable housing, energy efficiency, infrastructure investment and, most importantly improvement and expansion of mobile and broadband networks in Eastern Ontario.

It was also an occasion to acknowledge the important partnership these municipalities have with the Federal government in advancing these initiatives. Support has already been announced to some degree in the 2019 budget that was recently announced.

The May 24 meeting will take place in Prince Edward County, Logel said, and this one will see an invitation extended to member ridings MPPs.

“I look forward to providing an update after that meeting,” Logel said.

Spring will bring changes to Brighton 401 interchange

By Cecilia Nasmith

Ministry of Transportation planning-and-design-section project manager Chris Belanger told Northumberland County Council at its May meeting that the next stage in upgrades to Brighton's Highway 401 interchange will begin next spring.

Belanger was accompanied by MOT area manager Melissa Buelow in providing the update on the project that dates back to a 2006 study of the site.

“This work that is coming through is the second set in a series of works that will be done at this location,” he said.

Work in the second phase includes a new offramp on the eastbound lanes and a new alignment for the eastbound onramp. And during work on County Road 30, he added, they will be able to maintain one lane each of northbound and southbound traffic for the majority of the project.

However, a five-day closure of the eastbound onramp will be necessary.

When exact dates are known, notifications will go out to the municipality, residents and emergency services - a two-week notice for the start of construction and a three-week notice in advance of the onramp closure.

Meanwhile, they are busy getting permits and approvals, such as authorization from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in regards to at-risk species in Proctor Creek in consideration of mitigation measures they are planning.

Workdays are expected to run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, with no work planned Sundays or holidays.

Following council endorsement of the project, Belanger said he anticipates being able to tender the project in the fall, with work beginning in the spring of 2020 and stretching into the fall and possibly the winter.

Brighton Mayor Brian Ostrander asked if Belanger was aware of any impact on the project by changes in the recent provincial budget. Belanger was unaware of any.

“Brighton certainly looks forward to these improvements,” Ostrander said.

Council declares National AccessAbility Week in Northumberland

By Cecilia Nasmith

With a long-standing commitment to accessibility, Northumberland County Council took time at its May meeting to declare National AccessAbility Week in Northumberland May 26 to June 1.

Human resources and accessibility coordinator Andrea Nicholson said this has been a Canadian celebration since the mid-1980s, when Paralympian Rick Hanson undertook his Man In Motion world tour.

“It's a week for Canadians to promote inclusion and accessibility in their communities and workplaces, and celebrate progress, and be inspired to break down barriers,” Nicholson said.

“It's more than just removing physical barriers. It's changing attitudes and creating a culture of inclusion where all people can life and work and play in their own communities.”

Nicholson was joined by Northumberland Accessibility Advisory Committee chair Hope Bergeron in describing three initiatives planned for that week.

They will use some of the advertising space the county has in local news media and social-media platforms to offer messages that reinforce the county's commitment to this issue.

They will prepare five thought-provoking videos focusing on ability, rather than disability, and disseminate them throughout the administration.

And they will prepare a series of cartoons that represent real-life situations and issues in a humourous way that nonetheless raises awareness.

Bergeron also informed council of the advisory committee's recent award of the annual Helping Hands certificates – established in 2017 to recognize county staff members who have embraced accessibility and gone above and beyond mere compliance.

There is one individual winner and one team winner for 2019, she said.

Paramedic deputy chief Susan Brown treats everyone with respect and goes out of her way to ensure a climate of inclusion, Bergeron said. She has demonstrated this by actions that range from creating new paperwork procedures to make things easier for a dyslexic staffer to taking time to ensure staffers on modified-work duties (due to things like pregnancy or post-traumatic stress disorder) are feeling both valued and productive.

“Her leadership helps increase dialogue and decrease the stigma associated with disability,” Bergeron said.

The county's website-refresh team – director of communications Kate Campbell, communications officer Shayna Tinson, IT director Tony Paulic and service-desk analyst Devon Silhanek – won the team award for developing a website that is accessible to all users.

“We ask county council to endorse and proclaim National AccessAbility Week in Northumberland County,” Bergeron said.

“We believe this endorsement and proclamation will promote valuable exposure and necessary support, but also reaffirm the county's commitment to creating accessibility in Northumberland County.”

A teachable moment followed the presentation, when Port Hope Mayor Bob Sanderson shared a pet peeve – seeing a car with a handicapped-parking permit park in one of the designated spaces, followed by the exit of a young and seemingly healthy teenage driver.

It's a complaint they hear often, Nicholson agreed, but she reminded council that not all disabilities are visible.

“Some people do have chronic illnesses that can flare up and make it difficult for a person, even a young person,” she noted.

“That said, we are hearing about some new initiatives we can look at, maxing out awareness about the importance of these spaces being available or people who need them.”

Local partners seek to form a local Ontario Health Team

By Cecilia Nasmith

With the provincial government introducing the concept of Ontario Health Teams as a new model of health-care delivery, a number of local partners are building on a strong history of collaboration and coordinated care for members of the community to apply to form a local Ontario Health Team.

The idea behind the new provincial initiative is to improve the co-ordination of care and services by uniting patients, residents, families, communities, providers and system leaders in a team to deliver a smooth continuum of care within a defined geographical area. Though members of the team may be in different organizations or physical locations, they will work together toward common goals for strengthening local services.

In response to the April call for applications to form an OHT, a number of local health-system stakeholders have come together to establish an Ontario Health Team. Calling themselves the Northumberland Collaborative Planning Committee, they have taken the first step and submitted a self-assessment by the May 15 deadline.

Along with local patients, caregivers and primary-care physicians, members of the committee include Alderville First Nation, Campbellford Memorial Hospital, Community Care Northumberland, Community Health Centres of Northumberland, Northumberland Family Health Team, Trent Hills Family Health Team, Northumberland Hills Hospital, The Bridge Hospice and Northumberland County.

The press release included comments from many of the partners, including patient and caregiver representatives.

Scott Macpherson, who describes himself as a moderate-to-heavy user of Ontario's health care since his childhood in Toronto in the 1950s, compared health care in a large urban setting to health care in Northumberland,
“I have experienced how collaborative and effective local care providers have been in responding to the community’s complexities and uniqueness. I am honoured to be part of developing this submission,” Macpherson said.

Caregiver representative Kaye Jackson considers strengthening patient and caregiver voice and choice with the treatment team “critical for meaningful, innovative, integrated system redesign. By increasing the overall involvement of patients and caregivers, care planning can be specific to the strengths, preferences, and cultures of individuals. I am pleased to be actively contributing to this submission.”

“Through meaningful, positive partnerships and collaboration through the OHT, we will be able to achieve more and better health outcomes for our members,” Alderville director of health and social services Malcolm Ponnayan stated.

“Partnerships and exploring new models for collaboration are cornerstones of Community Care Northumberland’s approach to delivering client-centered care,” executive director Trish Baird said.

“CCN welcomes the opportunity to work with local agencies to identify innovative ways of improving client transitions across the health-care environment.”

“The possibility of forming a local Ontario Health Team represents an opportunity for Northumberland stakeholders to further strengthen our common understanding of the community’s health care needs, reducing barriers and improving health outcomes for local residents,” Community Health Centres of Northumberland executive director Duff Sprague added.

“As a provider of long-term care, paramedic and social services, Northumberland County welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with community partners on the formation of a local Ontario Health Team, as an extension of our commitment to the delivery of industry-leading, quality care and value for Northumberland residents.” county chief administrative officer Jennifer Moore commented.

“This submission to form a local Ontario Health Team is well aligned with the Northumberland Family Health Team mandate to improve the health status of the population by delivering seamless and sustainable access to care in our community. We look forward to next steps.” executive director Laurel Savoy stated.

“For Northumberland Hills Hospital, collaborative community partnerships have proven to be key enablers behind our ability to deliver high-quality care close to home,” president and chief executive officer Linda Davis said.

“As the process to form a local Ontario Health Team evolves, we look forward to building upon these partnerships to create a more cohesive model for a team that is better organized around local patients' needs.”

Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini congratulated all partners on their hard work to establish an OHT.

“This Ontario Health Team model will build upon the already strong existing collaborative partnerships in Northumberland,” Piccini said.

“The residents of our riding deserve a connected health care system that puts their needs first, and they also deserve a health care system that is sustainable and accessible for all."

The Ministry of Health will review all submissions, inviting those that demonstrate a high level of readiness to move forward with a more detailed application (which is due by mid-July). In a scenario where the Northumberland application is successful, the planning committee will engage the broader local health and social-care community (and the people served) to carry the process forward together.

This local OHT would build on existing partnerships and patient-caregiver perspectives for the further improvement of health outcomes, patient and provider experience, and value for Northumberland residents.

Based on current understanding of community health-care needs, the target population served would initially include rural residents (who face such barriers to accessing health care as isolation, homelessness, addiction and mental-health concerns), as well as those with palliative needs and limited mobility. The population served, as well as the scope of services provided, would expand over time.

The first OHTs are expected to be announced in the fall, with the province continuing to accept applications and evaluate interested groups over time. It is expected that all communities will ultimately adopt the Ontario Health Team model.

Background information about OHTs is available from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care at http://health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/connectedcare/oht/default.aspx.

County budget – the bad news

By Cecilia Nasmith

In what could become a regular feature of Northumberland County council meetings, chief administrative officer Jennifer Moore took the mike at their May meeting or a verbal update on how funding changes at provincial level (to date) affect the county's budget as already approved for 2019 – and, in some cases, the effects to the budget process in 2020.

“I know there has been a lot of attention and conversation about funding changes. We thought we should give an update on just how these are impacting Northumberland County,” Moore said.

Such an update can only be a snapshot in time, she added, as the picture is always changing. Sometimes it seems new information is coming in every day, sometimes a significant amount of time passes before they get details.

“There's a lot that's up in the air at the moment, but staff are doing their best to stay on top of it.”

The problem is that, since the long process of planning and passing the 2019 budget, realities have changed.

Providing a snapshot of how things stand at this moment in time, Moore offered a few highlights.

Paramedic services

The province made some comments about uploading this service but, to date, this idea is still under review. The province has committed to consultation, Moore said, and professional paramedic associations, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and other health-care groups are lobbying to keep the delivery of this service as it is.

“We are committed to making sure our resident receive the same level of care as they are currently receiving,” Moore added.

Meanwhile, provincial allocations for this service are frozen at 2018 levels. The kicker is that request for 2018 were based on costs in 2017 – effectively putting 2019 funding at 2017 levels. Since then, of course, wages, gas prices and any number of other costs have risen.

“The expectation is that we will absorb those costs,” she said.

“The province expects us to find efficiencies and not impact service levels.”

Staffing is a key element to being able to provide the level of service that they do, Moore said, but their salaries and benefits are 75% of the budget. The other 25% is full of items that cost more now than they did two years ago, such as fuel, medical supplies and building operations - “fixed costs that cannot be adjusted.”

As a result, this budget item has a $144,000 shortfall under current conditions.

Health unit

Many conversations are taking place about provincial changes to health-unit funding. In Northumberland, the county is expected to pay a portion of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit's costs based on a funding formula set out by the province.

That formula had been 75-25 provincial-municipal, though the province had in recent years failed to provide a full 75%. The 70-30 split the province is now proposing is not far off what the reality is now, Moore said.

However, further changes are anticipated around programming that was once 100% funded by the province. These programs are seeing a change to 70-30 and 80-20 formulas.

As things stand just now, this is a $99,000 budget impact for the county this year and possibly $350,000 in 2020.

Business and Entrepreneurship Centre

This program offers a lot of economic-development benefits in terms of entrepreneur and small-business support, and funding has been reduced by $90,000 for 2019 and 2020.

“Staff continue to review processes and consider how programs can be modified in order to deliver streamlined processes and programs,” Moore said.

Ontario Works

The budget shortfall here, in current conditions, is $107,000 in 2019 and possibly $300,000 in 2020. At the same time, changes to program parameters promise increased caseloads.

Child-care funding

The county is involved in many such programs, many of which were previously covered 100% and now will be a matter of 80-20. Administration expenses for these programs was also covered 100%, but is going to 50-50.

Expansion funding that was 100% is now 80-20.

“Service levels are expected to remain consistent despite the funding reductions,” Moore said.

Modernization funding

This is the one-time grant recently announced by Northumberland-Peterborough South MPP David Piccini, with amounts to the county and to each of its member municipalities to help them find efficiencies and modernize operations. The share for Northumberland County was $725,000.

It was supposed to be spent entirely at the municipality's discretion, Moore said, “but most municipalities have taken a cautious approach, which is what we are doing as well.”

A number of their initial idea relate to IT updates, and they have conferred with member municipalities on the potential of shared initiatives.

Overall

Some funding improvements have been made to offset the reductions, but Moore's best estimate is that the county is operationally short by $650,000 for 2019.

“This is guaranteed to change as more information comes forward, but this is the ballpark we are working with in our current year. Staff are working to adjust on the fly as best they can.”

This is not the first time a government has pushed for efficiencies, Moore said, and the county has evolved into quite a lean operation.

“We operate with 18% less staff on a per-household basis compared to other municipalities. We've had a stable levy increase for a number of years now,a nd still expanded our roads program, built up reserves, enhanced programs and services,” she listed.

“We have risen to the challenge before, and will continue to put forth our best efforts to do that.”

As well, Moore said, “We will continue to assess changes as they are announced.”

County budget – the good news

By Cecilia Nasmith

Northumberland County finance director Glenn Dees had good news to share at the May county council meeting with his review of the 2018 draft audited financial statements.

Every budget has its challenges, but the 2018 Northumberland budget also had a goodly share of positive highlights.

Net financial assets (cash and items that will be turned into cash like accounts receivable) have improved by 16% since 2010, Dees reported, and there is a continued positive trend of increased accumulation of surplus. The 2018 amount of $189.6-million compares with $119.8-million in 2010.

Cash and investments in 2018 have risen about $500,000 from the year before, and by more than $50-million since 2009. At the same time, long-term debt decreased by $571,000 from the previous year.

The $173-million net book value of assets increased by $10.2-million over 2017. This would include land, buildings, equipment, vehicles and land improvements, but roads and bridges do account for 60% of these assets.

“The largest liability we have on our statement of financial position is unfunded landfill closures and post-closure liability,” Dees said.

This amount is $21.2-million, though that is down by $1.5-million from 2017.

Reserves, an item the county is committed to, stand at $53.5-million (up $6-million from 2017, and up from the $10-million amount reported for 2005). These provide flexibility for financing future projects and initiatives, Dees said – for example, he expects $13-million will go toward the redevelopment of the Golden Plough Lodge from reserves.

Accumulated surplus stands at $136-million (up $6.4-million from 2017).

Actual 2018 revenues of $114.3-million were $4.3-million more than budgeted. Most of that comes from taxation ($54.3-million), followed by provincial-government grants ($37.9-million) and user charges ($11.2-million).

One troubling item here is that provincial-government grants are the second-biggest revenue source, Dees said, since a new party has taken over Queen's Park with new ideas.

“Changes from the province will create some significant challenges,” he predicted.

For now, however, total revenues are up by $7.2-million over 2017.

Actual expenses of $102-million were $2-million more than budgeted, and up by $6.8-million over 2017. The three biggest items under expenses are salaries and budgets $40.6-million), external transfers such as program-delivery costs ($25.7-million) and materials ($17.9-million).

Breaking down expenses according to what services costs, the three biggest items are social and family services, including long-term care (34%), transportation (16%) and health services (14%).

Long-term debt decreased by $600,000, though a new debenture was issued for the paramedic power-lift stretchers. Anticipated 2020 debentures include the Roseneath emergency-services base and the Brighton landfill expansion.

Total debt of $7.7-million is well below the annual repayment limit set by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, Dees reported.

He offered a few summary remarks, referring to the continued positive trend in the overall financial position and the continuing challenge with asset renewal.

Another continuing challenge is circumstances that are out of anyone's hands. For example, fluctuating world and market conditions affect what the Material Recovery Facility can bring in as revenue. Excessively wet weather causes leachate at the landfill and excessively snowy weather drains the winter-maintenance budget.

Sometimes there's a silver lining, he added. Less waste is coming into the landfill, meaning less revenue from tipping fees. This is due in large part to private transfer stations now operating within the county. However, this means Northumberland's one remaining landfill gets used up at a slower rate, effectively extending its lifespan.

“Significant provincial-funding reliance means risks from upcoming provincial policy changes,” he warned.

While the debt is under control, he continued, “we need to continue strategies under the long-term financial-planning framework focusing on sustainability and fiscal responsibility.”